Did My Job Cause Cancer?

Agenda / Content Covered

Session Time: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Eastern
Presenters: Dr. Burton Bentley II, Dr. Thomas Fariss, William Gavin and Andrew Vickery

• Introduction
• What Causes Cancer?
• Prevalence of Occupational Cancer
• Approach to Cancer Causation in the Workplace - How to Identify Factors That Speak for or Against Causation
• Information and Resources Used to Determine Causation
• Cancer Clusters
• Cancer Litigation Under Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) With Case Discussion
• Daubert Challenges - Implications for Medical Experts
• Summary and Key Points for Plaintiff and Defense Attorneys
• Q&A

Accreditation Details:

DR. BURTON BENTLEY II , M.D., FAAEM, is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and a nationally recognized authority on medical liability, informed consent, and complex issues at the intersections of medicine, business & law. As CEO of Elite Medical Experts, Dr. Bentley and his team have consulted on over 8000 medicolegal matters totaling over $3B at risk. He secured a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Arizona before earning his medical degree at the same institution where he was awarded Alpha Omega Alpha before graduating at the top of his class. Dr. Bentley then completed a residency in emergency medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin where he served as a flight physician on nearly 100 emergency missions. He then practiced full-time emergency medicine as a partner at Northwest Tucson Emergency Physicians for 21 years before stepping out to pursue a novel medical device that he patented and commercialized in 2016. Throughout his entire clinical career, Dr. Bentley consulted on complex medicolegal issues, and in 2010 he founded Elite Medical Experts, a consulting firm that aligns professors of medicine and surgery as consulting and testifying experts in complex litigation. Elite serves over 4,000 clients across the United States including law firms, governmental entities, corporate entities, and insurers. Dr. Bentley lectures extensively on medicolegal topics and consults strategically on medical negligence, informed consent, risk mitigation, and crisis management at the clinical practice level. More recently, he co-founded Consent Spectrum, a digital platform to optimize informed consent for nearly every aesthetic medical procedure.

DR. THOMAS FARISS, M.D., M.P.H., is an adjunct professor of public health at Emory University who holds 16 state medical licenses and is board certified in internal medicine (ABIM) and occupational & environmental medicine (ABPM). He also recently served as vice president of global health at Kimberly-Clark Corporation where he was responsible for overseeing occupational health for over 41,000 global employees. Dr. Fariss's background includes work at the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Hospital for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, and he has recently served as medical consultant for Target, ArcBest, and HPE. His diverse experience gives him unique and actionable insight into occupational health, preventive medicine, and the nexus of employment law and work-related health issues. Dr. Fariss received his B.S. degree in chemistry at the College of William and Mary, his M.D. degree at University of Virginia School of Medicine, internal medicine training at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and occupational and environmental medicine training and M.P.H. degree at the George Washington University School of Public Health.

WILLIAM GAVIN, Esq., is the principal of Gavin Law Firm, LLC in Belleville, Illinois. He concentrates his national practice in toxic tort Federal Employers Liability Act litigation. Mr. Gavin has represented railroad workers in litigation in the courts of Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Colorado, Arkansas, Kentucky, California, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio, and Mississippi. He is the author of numerous publications in this field and is board certified in pre-trial advocacy and civil trial advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Mr. Gavin is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Missouri. He is also admitted to practice law in numerous federal courts including the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Gavin is an adjunct instructor at Southwest Illinois College where he teaches the torts and civil procedure courses. He received his J.D. degree, cum laude, from St. Louis University and was a publishing member of the law review at St. Louis University School of Law.

ANDREW VICKERY, Esq., is the founding partner of Vickery & Shepherd, a small plaintiff's firm headquartered in Houston, Texas. He is a graduate of Yale College (B.A. 1969) and the University of Georgia Law School (J.D. 1972). Mr. Vickery is a member of the prestigious invitation only American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and senior faculty at the Trial Lawyers College, founded in 1994 by Gerry Spence. He is also a long time member of the American Trial Lawyers Association (n/k/a "American Association of Justice") and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Vickery has tried over 100 cases to jury verdict, and argued numerous appeals in various state and federal courts. At present he is involved in litigating a number of cancer cases against railroad defendants under the Federal Employees Liability Act.